CueCat

2001-2002

Marketed as a revolutionary technology, the CueCat was a cat-shaped handheld scanner that plugs into your computer. By scanning special codes in printed magazines, users could open the advertisers websites without having to enter the web address. Millions were produced and shipped for free with magazines such as Wired and Businessweek. The device was pitched as a way to avoid typing in long web addresses, but is reading a magazine next to a cat-shaped scanner really more convenient than just typing a link? The CueCat was an epic dot-com failure. Tech blog Gizmodo listed it as the #1 worst invention of the decade, and PC World magazine called it one of the 25 . Worst Tech Products of All Time. Investors lost their $185 million. 

Additional info:
Wikipedia
Businessinsider – “In order to scan in codes from magazines and newspapers, you have to be reading them in front of your PC. That’s unnatural and ridiculous”
Cnet.com – article from 2002, “Consumers fail to make CueCat purr”
Cuecatjovanhuttonpulitzer – wall of text.

The CueCat makes it so easy to get ads from TV and magazines on your computer: